Written by

James Fisher

The News Journal

GEORGETOWN — A Superior Court judge on Wednesday ruled that court filings will remain open in a civil lawsuit against du Pont family heir Robert H. Richards IV, who admitted raping his daughter and who the suit claims also sexually abused his son.

Judge Richard F. Stokes ruled against a request to seal the case made by Richards' lawyer, who argued that publicity about the lawsuit could be harming the children. The "assumption that proceedings are open to the public" was not overridden by the arguments Stokes heard, the judge ruled.

"There is a First Amendment concern," Stokes said. "That is a driving one."

Richards' ex-wife, Tracy Richards, sued him in March, alleging that he had abused his son, who is now 9, when the boy was an infant at family homes in Greenville and Rehoboth Beach.

In 2008, Richards pleaded guilty to fourth-degree rape of his daughter when she was 3 years old. He received no prison time and was sentenced to probation.

"We ask the court to move slowly here, and err on the side of privacy," John D. Balaguer, Richards lawyer, said Wednesday in Superior Court. He asked Stokes to rule that any court papers filed dealing with medical, mental health or nonpublic financial details about the people involved be sealed from public inspection.

The conviction and sentence gained public attention after Tracy Richards filed the civil case. Balaguer said Tracy Richards could be harming her children by bringing the conviction into the limelight with her lawsuit.

The suit has prompted widespread uproar after it was revealed that Richards faced no jail time and the judge in his case included in her sentencing order that he would "not fare well" in prison. Superior Court Judge Jan R. Jurden agreed to Richards' probation on the condition that he be accepted for in-patient treatment at a Massachusetts hospital, but he never received the treatment. Attorney General Beau Biden has defended how his prosecutors handled the case.

Richards has never been criminally charged with abusing his son, but the lawsuit cites a probation officer's reports that state Richards mentioned concern about it during a lie detector test taken while he was on probation.

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Richards, 47, is a member of the du Pont family, who built the worldwide chemical company, and the Richards family, co-founders of the prestigious corporate law firm Richards Layton & Finger.

The children's names are not concealed by pseudonyms in the lawsuit; still, The News Journal does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

Richards should have considered whether "making these allegations public will have done equal or more harm to them than the original event," Balaguer argued. "She may not have these children's best interests at heart."

Richards's attorney, Thomas Crumplar, argued against sealing the record, saying Richards had presented no evidence that the lawsuit had embarrassed the children.

"We have to start out with the presumption that the courts are open," Crumplar said in court. "The defendant, on the other hand, wants to start out with the presumption that everything is sealed."

The lawyers and Stokes debated whether intense media interest in the case would make it impossible to find jurors who hadn't already made up their minds.

Balaguer's motion to seal the record and prevent attorneys from talking to the press said Crumplar and Tracy Richards, who appeared at a press conference March 18 to announce the lawsuit, sought the publicity "to cynically generate public outrage over his criminal sentencing over five years ago, none of which has any bearing on the current civil claims."

Balaguer complained that Crumplar referred to Richards as a "trust fund baby" at the March press conference and said allegations by the plaintiff's legal team that Richards had stopped paying for the children's medical insurance were untrue.

"There are things my client would like to clear up for the record, but all that does, in his view, is continue the public spectacle," Balaguer said. "From my client's perspective, the paramount interest is trying to prevent further injury to his daughter and to his son."

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Crumplar said the press conference prompted people to come forward "who may be helpful in this case to prove other things, including the abuse of the son." He also said the daughter is likely to testify about the lawsuit's allegation that Richards abused his son.

"It's ironic that it's the defendant who raped his children who's now coming to the court saying he's concerned," Crumplar said. And he told the judge that because of the retroactive scrutiny now being given to the criminal case against Richards, sealing the civil case record could lead people to believe the wealthy defendant was being given an advantage.

"There is public suspicion that's out there," Crumplar said. "If we close these proceedings, given that burden, it will further tarnish the integrity of the process."

Stokes, in explaining his reasons for denying Richards motion, said he believed thorough questioning of potential jurors about their knowledge of the case would weed out jurors who had "firm and fixed" opinions about it. He noted any trial in the case is likely 18 months to two years away, after a blizzard of depositions, subpoenas and motions.

Although the children may be exposed to invasions of privacy because the lawsuit names them, Stokes said, "they're being taken care of as properly as one would expect."